Thursday, December 29, 2011

First battle report - eCaine vs pButcher 35pts

So had another game last night and though we are still learning in our gaming group, I decided I'd put up a battle report of our game. So setting up we decided to play to a points value that my opponent could make up with his painted models that he had with him and as it turned out he could make 35pts so I used the same list I had been working on for awhile.

I'm hoping to take pEiryss in future lists, as I prefer her, but since I prefered the eEiryss model I am still waiting on the pEiryss card to arrive from PP. Note in the report we had a break mid-game so I am a little hazy on the details.

He won the roll off and chose to have me deploy first. The table was pretty even with a hill and a building on either side, and with a forest on my side and ruins on his. I stuck the Black 13th over behind the forest intending to Advance Deploy Eiryss out on front of them in the forest. I put the Gun Mages with UA and Cyclone behind the building and Caine and the Jr. off to the side of it covered by the Charger and Defender. He set up his whole force opposite Caine with the Man-o-wars taking a flank with a line of jacks next to them. The Butcher hid behind them.

First turn I just shuffled my models around a bit for better range and firing positions next turn. I put up Arcane Shield and Blur on the Defender and left him covering the Charger and warcasters. The Khador army just ran forward.

I upkept both my spells and Caine kept his focus while the Jr. gave her remaining two to the Charger. I decided to take what I thought was a risk in turn 2 (as it turns out it wasn't a risk at all; more on that later). I moved Eiryss out and shot the nearest Destroyer, opting for the one damage on his 4 and more importantly disrupting him. The Defender moved into range and pummeled the other Destroyer, doing a hefty amount of damage. The Charger popped off two shots, one fully boosted, at the same jack and did some more damage. Everything else redeployed.

Butcher spread his focus between the other three jacks and then we made our first mistake. One of the Juggernauts shot at Eiryss; I thought Stealth only worked when concealed, camoflagued or in cover. Luckily, he missed. The other one shot at the Charger and did a few points of damage, nearly crippling his movement. Everything else either moved or ran.

I repeated the same focus steps for turn 3 however I dropped Blur on the Defender so Caine would have more focus. I didn't see an assassination run in the usual style as working too well on the DEF14 ARM18 Butcher, not to mention that I would likely have to wait for his jacks to make contact first. Instead Caine moved up a popped his feat in order to wipe out two of the Man-o-wars. The Cyclone moved and Thunderbolted the closet Destroyer, getting a critical knockdown in the process. The Defender then backed off and shot his also, doing only a tiny bit of damage. The Charger shot at the Man-o-wars, but didn't do enough to kill one. The Gun Mages then moved out and shot at the other Destroyer, however only three were in range so they combined they ranged attack into Arcane Inferno and did a tiny bit of damage. Eiryss also took another point from his 4 and disrupted him. The Black 13th moved up more but were still out of range (still not entirely sure how best to use these guys).

With jacks disrupted and knocked down the Butcher spread out minimal focus and then put up Full Throttle. The Juggernaut shot at Eiryss again and this time my rules mistake cost me as he hit and killed her. The second Juggernaut advanced and shot at the Gun Mages, killing 4. The Destroyer that was downed used a focus to get up and then charged the Gun Mages, killing the UA. The rest just ran.

With the Khador army about to close in I knew I had to pull something out of the bag here or lose. I reckoned I had just enough movement with the last two Gun Mages (the death of the UA put them out of the Destroyer's melee range) to Thunderbolt the Destroyer protecting the Butcher. As it turned out I was right and they managed to push it enough that the Butcher was no longer protected. The Cyclone and Charger then teamed up and with some hot rolling took down the Butcher to win the game for Cygnar.

Observations:- I haven't a clue on how to best use the Black 13th. This is something I will need to work on.- Using Stealth properly would have been a huge help. That being said though, I do prefer pEiryss, and indeed she had two clean shots at the Butcher this game, however eEiryss couldn't do a whole lot to him.- Even without a properly written list, Khador stuff is **** hard to kill with shooting.